Hermione Before Hogwarts

Hermione Before Hogwarts

Hermione was a remarkable child right from the start, and her parents knew it. Even as an infant there was a curious and inquisitive air about her. She said her first word, "bookie", at only six months (though no one was really sure whether she actually was trying to say something or she spoke it by mere coincidence) and she was reading short stories by the time she was five.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger could hardly fail to notice that their daughter was highly intelligent, and they encouraged her every step of the way. However, since Hermione was such a bright child, she realized that there was something unusual about herself. Something beyond intelligence…

The memory of the day that the first "incident" happened was still fresh in Hermione's mind. It had been the first day of kindergarten and Hermione's teacher had handed out a handful of gummi bears to each member of the class. Hermione, who was a fan of cherry flavored candies, was disappointed to see that she had gotten every flavor but cherry. She was too shy to ask anyone if they wanted to trade, so she popped an apple flavored one in her mouth. To her amazement it tasted exactly like cherry! Opening her fist to see the rest of her gummi bears, Hermione was shocked to see that they had all turned red. She was sensible enough to know that things like this didn't just happen and she was quite shaken. She was wary about eating anymore candy, but the temptation was too great—after all, they were her favorite flavor! So Hermione stuffed the lot of them into her mouth.

As time went on, similar strange things occurred. Once her mother had wanted to send Hermione off to school in a ridiculous pink puffy dress "because it looked so adorable!" However, even though Mrs. Granger had sworn she had left the dress on Hermione's bed, when she went to get it, it was no where to be seen and it never turned up again. Another time when Hermione was ten she had been buying an ice cream cone for the child she had been looking after, but she discovered that she was short by just a few pence. Although sure she had no money left, a nagging feeling told her to check her pocket one last time, and she was delighted, and surprised to find that she had just enough money, despite the fact that she had just emptied her pockets moments earlier.

Hermione had no way of explaining these odd occurrences until she turned eleven when she received a fateful letter from a certain wizarding school.

"Hermione, will you get the post?" Mrs. Granger called from the kitchen.

"Sure mum," said Hermione, getting up from her homework. The post had slid in through a slot on the door. Hermione sorted through the envelopes—she sometimes received a letter from a pen pal.

"Bill, bill, bill, junk, bill," Hermione muttered, glancing at them, "junk, junk—" Hermione stopped. There was indeed a letter, addressed to her plainly, though certainly not from a pen pal. She held it up; all the other envelopes scattered around her feet forgotten.

The first thing she noticed was that it had no stamp. "How on earth did it get here?" Hermione wondered. Then she saw that it was addressed in an unusual shade of ink, and the envelope was quite stiff. Frowning, the slid it opens with her finger and pulled out a sheet of paper that was as stiff as the envelope it came in. As she read, her eyes grew wide. Not quite understanding, she read it again, and again.

"M-Mum," Hermione sputtered, "Could you come here?"

"What is it dear?" Mrs. Granger asked, stepping into the living room, a dishrag draped on her arm.

Not bothering to answer, Hermione thrust the letter into her mother's hand. "Read it."

Mrs. Granger did so, her brow furrowing. "What on earth?"

"What do you think?" Hermione asked.

"I think this is someone's idea of a joke." Mrs. Granger sounded confused.

"Pretty good joke," Hermione muttered. She was about to dismiss the letter and a prank, when she suddenly recalled the strange incidents of her life. Could it possibly be…?

"Mum, I just remembered something!"

"What is it?"

"Let's go into the kitchen to sit down and I'll tell you everything."

Afterword

Hermione waved good-bye to her parents as she slipped through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. She couldn't believe that she was actually going to Hogwarts! It had seemed incredible to discover that the Wizarding World really existed, but to be actually going was a dream come true! The concept of it fascinated Hermione so much that she had actually read all of her books cover-to-cover. She couldn't help feeling nervous, after all, she had grown up with Muggle parents, but she was tremendously excited as well. So, taking a deep breath, she stepped aboard the Hogwarts Express.

I know this was very short, but I thought I would be cute writing about Hermione before she started Hogwarts. I know the grammar isn't perfect, but I tried. I'm also American, so I tried to make it sound British, but I don't know if I succeeded. *lol* Anyways, please review!